Brahmin blue streetsBundi, Rajasthan, India,
2008-10-02 12:00 by Laerke and MartinOur next stop here in Rajasthan was Bundi, a smaller less touristy town, which might owe its relative lack of tourism to the bad roads leading to it and the shortcoming of decent train connections. We walked the narrow Brahmin-blue lanes stopping to look at the bazaar, temples and old havelis along the way.

Looming over the city is the Taragarh Fort, it was build in 1354 and has been long abandoned. It is now partly overgrown with wines and a band of monkeys have pretty much taken over - we were advised to find a big stick up there to scare them away. As we were exploring, we were suddenly also caught between two monkeys screaming at each other, chasing each other around. We were completely caught off guard and got a little startled; Martin found a bigger stick – with thorns on it, and we proceeded. There were some huge reservoirs and in some places, we could still see old, fading murals adorning the walls.

Another highlight was the Bundi Palace; it had previously been shut up and left to the bats but has now been cleaned up and is open to the public. It was a pretty grand place, with decaying murals and pretty ornament balconies; we walked through most of it, enjoying the view over the city through the many windows. In some of the rooms you could still clearly smell the bats, and in a couple of darker passages, hundreds of them were clinging to the high ceilings.